November 16, 2001
University Park, Pa.--The Penn State Board of Trustees today (Nov. 16) approved a $1 per year land lease to the Alpha Community Ambulance Service to enable the service to build a new facility to better serve the Centre Region, State College and the University Park campus.

The 60-year-old Alpha Community Ambulance Service will relocate its corporate headquarters, currently located along South Atherton Street, to a 4-acre parcel of University land along College Avenue on the east side of campus in College Township. The service, which offers 24-hour emergency and non-emergency transportation with advanced and basic life support, as well as wheel chair vans, has initiated a fund-raising campaign in order to build the new facility.

The 4-acre parcel is a strategic location because of its proximity to College Avenue, which borders the site to the south, Route 322 to the east, and the Centre Community Hospital.

The lease was approved for 50 years, with all building and site improvements being provided by the Alpha Community Ambulance Service and reverting back to the University at the end of the lease term.

“Penn State continues to do whatever it can to support the surrounding communities,” said Penn State President Graham B. Spanier. “This arrangement with Alpha Community Ambulance Service is another in a long history of initiatives taken by the University to support our neighbors.”

Other good neighbor initiatives include:

In 1966, Penn State contributed a 29-acre tract of land situated on University property to the Centre County Hospital, then based in Bellefonte, for an additional facility that eventually became the stand-alone Centre Community Hospital. The cost estimate of the new unit in 1967 $5.3 million.

In 1996, Penn State initiated a $1-per-year land lease for at least 35 years to support the creation of the Millbrook Marsh nature center by the Centre Region Recreation Authority on 63.2 acres along Puddintown Road in College Township.

Also in 1996, the University arranged a $1-per-year land lease for at least 35 years for the expansion of historical exhibits by the Centre County Historical Society on 4.8 acres adjacent to the Centre Furnace Mansion property at Porter Road and East College Avenue.